Buns History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Etymology of Buns

What does the name Buns mean?

The ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of England produced the name of Buns. It was given to a person who was of good character. It originally derived from the Old French as le bon which was used as a term of endearment. The surname was adopted in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. 1

Early Origins of the Buns family

The surname Buns was first found in Oxfordshire, where Edward le Bon was recorded in the Curia Regis Rolls for 1204. In Wiltshire, the first record there was that of Rocelin le Bun who appeared in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1255. Walter le Bone was listed in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1296 and Thomas Bonne was found in Herefordshire in 1379. 2

Walter Buns was listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 in Oxfordshire. The Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 included Rogerus Bonne; and Johannes Bunne. 3

Early History of the Buns family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Buns research. Another 229 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 1204, 1255, 1296, 1379, 1500, 1618, 1788, 1796, 1823, 1826, 1830, 1833, 1840 and 1860 are included under the topic Early Buns History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Buns Spelling Variations

One relatively recent invention that did much to standardize English spelling was the printing press. However, before its invention even the most literate people recorded their names according to sound rather than spelling. The spelling variations under which the name Buns has appeared include Bunn, Bun, Bon, Bonn, Bone, Bonne, Bunne and others.

Early Notables of the Buns family

Alfred Bunn (1796-1860), a prominent theatrical figure who served as joint manager of the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres in London in the 1830s. Elliston gave him his first appointment as stage-manager of Drury Lane in 1823, when he was quite a young man; and he first obtained a certain celebrity as a manager by endeavouring some dozen years afterwards to establish an English Opera. In 1826 he was manager of the Birmingham Theatre, and in 1833 held the same post at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. For most of these operas Mr. Bunn himself furnished the libretto, which however...
Another 101 words (7 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Buns Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Buns migration to the United States +

At this time, the shores of the New World beckoned many English families that felt that the social climate in England was oppressive and lacked opportunity for change. Thousands left England at great expense in ships that were overcrowded and full of disease. A great portion of these settlers never survived the journey and even a greater number arrived sick, starving, and without a penny. The survivors, however, were often greeted with greater opportunity than they could have experienced back home. These English settlers made significant contributions to those colonies that would eventually become the United States and Canada. An examination of early immigration records and passenger ship lists revealed that people bearing the name Buns arrived in North America very early:

Buns Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

David Buns, who landed in Texas in 1835 4

Sources +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)